Over the past year, cases of ransomware have gained prominence in the field of computer security due to a notable growth in the number of victims. This is, in turn, due to the significant profits that cybercriminals can obtain from this type of malicious campaign.

It has been two weeks since ESET created a TeslaCrypt decryptor, which allows victims of this ransomware to get their files back. Since then, over 32,000 users around the globe have taken advantage of this opportunity and downloaded the tool.

Last month we discovered filecoder malware which called itself “Cryptolocker 2.0”. Naturally, we wondered if this is a newer version of the widespread ransomware from the creators of the first. We look at the details that hint that it might have been created by some other, unknown, cybercrime gang.

Trojans that encrypt user files and try to extort a ransom from the victim in exchange for a decryptor utility are nothing new. We’ve noted a significant increase in Filecoder activity over the past few summer months - in this blog post we address the questions we’re getting about this issue.